Monday, July 6, 1998 Last modified at 12:34 a.m. on Monday, July 6, 1998

Extra Penny Per Stamp

BEGINNING IN JANUARY, Americans will be stuck with a price increase in the price of buying postage stamps. It may be only a one cent, but it is still an unnecessary price hike.

Sam Winters, chairman of the independent United States Postal Service's governing board, commented, "This penny increase is the right amount at the right time."

We disagree. The United States Postal Service - a self-supporting agency, which means that no tax dollars fund it - is fat and rich right now.

The USPS had a surplus of almost $1.8 billion at the end of fiscal 1995, a $1.5 billion surplus for 1996 and a $1.2 billion surplus for fiscal 1997.

The first half of the fiscal year of 1998 ended with the Postal Service looking at a $1.3 billion surplus. We fail to see the necessity of raising the rate of stamps at this time.

The Postal Service wanted the rate increase because it wants to spend $5.6 billion on equipment and service improvements this year. Our position has been that the expenditures of new equipment and service improvements could be made on a more gradual basis.

That is the way it would happen in a private business with an eye on the bottom line, and that is the way that it should happen in the United States Postal Service.

One consolation in the postage increase is that the cost of the second ounce of a first-class mailing decreased by a penny. Thus, at least the cost of mailing a two-ounce letter will remain the same. And a three-letter will actually be a penny cheaper to mail than it currently is.